Joker: Folie à DeuxFirst Reviews Praise 'Real Spark' Between Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga

Mar. 15, 2025

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix inJoker: Folie à Deux(2024).Photo: Lady Gaga/Instagram

The first reactions toJoker: Folie à Deuxare here!

The anticipated musical follow-up toTodd Phillips' 2019 blockbusterJokerpremiered atVenice Film Festivalon Wednesday, Sept. 4, and now critics are weighing in on the film starringJoaquin Phoenixas Arthur Fleck/Joker andLady Gagaas Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn.

“There’s a real spark when Joker and Harley meet-uncute in the joint,“The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw wrote. “But the whole movie finally turns out to be oppressively, claustrophobically and repetitively becalmed in that oddly unreal Gotham-universe jail with Phoenix and Gaga kept apart for long periods – and Phoenix’s own performance is as single-note as before, though certainly as forceful and his screen presence is potent.”

Writing forThe Wrap, William Bibbiani opined that Phoenix “is incredibly talented, and brings new insights to Arthur Fleck that Arthur himself didn’t seem to understand until now.”

Poster forJoker: Folie à Deux(2024).Lady Gaga/Instagram

Lady Gaga/Instagram

The Irish Times' Tara Brady gave the movie three stars out of five and wrote that Phoenix, 49, remains “a sight to behold” as Arthur Fleck / Joker, while Gaga, 38, “gives everything to an underwritten role.”

“There are interesting notes on the intersection between love, mental illness, obsession, performance, and fandom,” Brady wrote. “If only the movie were a little better.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney wrote in his review thatFolie à Deux"will likely be embraced or dismissed for some of the same reasons” audiences either loved or hated the 2019 original. “In blocking the Joker from his maniacal dissemination of mayhem on the Gotham City streets, the movie all but neutralizes him,” Rooney wrote. “Not to get too spoiler-y, but even more than its predecessor, the sequel reduces the archvillain to a hollowed-out product of childhood trauma and mental illness. Which means there’s little we didn’t learn last time. Even the dance interludes are carried over from Joker.”

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IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in a negative review of the film that Phillips has made an “excruciatingly — perhaps even deliberately — boring sequel that does everything in its power not to amuse you,” and particularly criticized the director’s use of Gaga, 38. “Phillips’ decision to cast a generational superstar in a role that seems designed to maximize both her supreme talents as a singer and her all-consuming screen presence as an actress just so he can sit her in the background of a courtroom whenever he’s not cutting her musical numbers off at the knees… well, it’s a lot more criminal than anything Arthur Fleck ever does in this movie,” he wrote.

Joker: Folie à Deuxwas officially confirmed in June 2022, after the success of Phillips' original film that saw Phoenix, 49, take home theOscar for Best Actor. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards total, and also won the prize for Best Original Score. Phoenix reprises his role as Joker alongsideZazie Beetzas Sophie Dumond. PEOPLE confirmed that Gaga was in talks to play Harley Quinn in June 2022.

Joker: Folie à Deuxis in theaters Oct. 4.

source: people.com